Costs of average home is pounds 11,500 pa.

THE average home costs nearly pounds 11,500 a year to run - the equivalent of pounds 31 a day, according to research.

Homeowners will spend an average of pounds 11,455 paying the mortgage, heating, lighting and maintaining their property during 2009, says Sainsbury's Home Insurance. But the cost of running a property has increased by only 2.6% during the past two years, as lower mortgage costs have helped to offset rising energy prices.

The small increase contrasts with when the group last carried out the research in 2007, when the cost of running a home had soared by 12% during the previous two years.

Unsurprisingly, the mortgage is the single biggest cost that homeowners face, accounting for an average of pounds 6,862 a year or 60% of total expenditure.

But average mortgage repayments have actually fallen by 1.5% during the past two years, due to the Bank of England base rate being slashed to a record low of 0.5%.

Council tax is the second highest expenditure at an average of pounds 1,414, 7% higher than two years ago.

There has also been a 27% jump in gas bills and a 17% rise in electricity bills during the past two years to pounds 812 and pounds 445 a year respectively.

Homeowners have also seen their water and sewerage bills rise by an average of nearly 10% compared with 2007 to stand at pounds 342 a year..

On top of this homeowners also spend an average of pounds 418 a year maintaining and repairing their property and a further pounds 1,162 carrying out alterations and improvements to their home.

The research was based on figures from the ONS, Ofwat, Ofgem, Communities and Local Government and Halifax..